Story+2003-08-28+East+Rutherford,+NJ

“Good evening, everybody (crowd cheers) thank you for coming out and ringing out the summer with us (crowd cheers)…(?)…anybody sees any of those beach balls out there, please smash them to shreds (crowd cheers) need a little quiet for this next song…”
 * 28.08.03 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Empty Sky”**

“Come on, Steve…Big Pussy!...”
 * 28.08.03 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day”**

“[Does the “Are you ready?”-call-and-response with the crowd] are you ready for a house party (crowd cheers) are you ready for end-of-the-summer-Jersey house party? (crowd cheers) ooh yeah now… oh yeah…I remember when the nights would get long and cool… when I used to be about twelve years old, I’d go to my aunt’s house, my aunt, I had two cousins who used to win all these dancing contests…and they had a house in Spring Lake and they’d go down and (crowd cheers) when I was twelve, I used to sit on the steps and they rolled up the carpet and they had one of those little box record players with all the 45’s…I used to sit back and watch the girls come in…oh…oh yeah now…and I knew that if you want to have a house party, the first thing you need is the music has got to be (crowd: “righteous”) righteous now…it’s gotta have some soul …the second thing you need is you’ve got to get your (crowd: “ass”) ass up out of your seat (crowd cheers) that’s right...and the third thing you need…the third thing you need is you got to have at your service, at your service, at your service the greatest little house band in all the land (crowd cheers) that’s right…oh that’s right now…I want to introduce to this side of the stage, the ineffectual intellectual, the man with 87 degrees and 88 keys, the pathological piano-pounder, I’m talking about the dean of the university of musical perversity, Professor Roy Bittan (crowd cheers) play it smart, baby, play it smart…on the violin and vocals, out of New York City, Sister Soozie Tyrell (crowd cheers) star of the Sopranos-television show, the coolest little deejay in the U.S.A, Brother Steve Van Zandt (crowd cheers) on the bass guitar, the Tennessee Terror, Mr. Garry W. Tallent (crowd cheers) on the drums, the man that brings the power hour after hour, night after night, the Minister of the big beat, the Secretary of syncopation and the star of “Late Night (crowd: “Television”) Mighty Max Weinberg (crowd cheers) on the guitar, the Secretary of heart and spirit, one of the greatest guitarists in rock’n’roll, Brother Nils Lofgren (crowd cheers) on the organ, out of Flemington, New Jersey, Brother Dan Federici (crowd cheers) to the far side of the stage, ooh, my sweetie baby honey-child, on the guitar and vocals, First Lady of love, Miss Patti Scialfa (crowd cheers) and last but not least (crowd cheers) last but not least (crowd cheers) Minister of soul, Secretary of the brotherhood, Emperor of the known universe (crowd cheers) on the saxophone, ladies and gentlemen, you wish you could be like him but I’m sorry, you cannot because under the sun there is only one Clarence “Big Man” Clemons (crowd cheers) now I want you to put your hands together for the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, house-rocking, earth-shaking, booty-quaking, Viagra-taking, love-making, legendary E Street Band! (crowd cheers) did I mention “love-making?” (crowd cheers)...”
 * 28.08.03 East Rutherford, NJ, middle of “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”**

“Alright…let’s try one we haven’t played in a while (crowd cheers) by request…”
 * 28.08.03 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Independence Day”**

“On guitar tonight one of the great local New Jersey musicians, Mr. Bobby Bandiera…help us out, Bobby…”
 * 28.08.03 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “From Small Things”**

“Let’s roadhouse, Steve… (…)(?)…(Steve: “Boss man boogaloo”)…hey, Steve!...I’m tired and I wanna go home…(Steve: “So you can’t take it, huh?”) I’m running out of moves…(?)…Steve…it’s quitting time (crowd: “No”)…(?)…well, Steve, if it ain’t quitting time, then what I wanna know is what time is it? (crowd: “Boss-time”)(Steve: “I guess everybody already left”) (crowd: “No” and cheering)(Steve: “I believe it’s Boss-time”)… (…) Mr. and Mrs. New Jersey (crowd cheers) what time is it? (crowd: “Boss-time!”)…”
 * 28.08.03 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Ramrod”**

“Thank you (crowd cheers) thank you, New Jersey (crowd cheers) woo…I wanna thank everybody for coming out tonight, thank you very much (crowd cheers) I wanna thank you and your friends for the tremendous support we’ve had here at these shows in New Jersey, a big thrill for us (crowd cheers) we’ve had a great summer, it’s fun being out here with you…I wanna send this one out to our friends tonight from the Community Foodbank of New Jersey, you can see them out in the hall, they could use your donations of your time and your support…they serve up to, uh, 24 million pounds of food annually to eighteen New Jersey counties, assisting the struggling citizens of New Jersey, 40 percent are children…folks who have to choose between paying for food to eat and paying their rent so please if you get a chance, support the Community Foodbank, they’re set up out there on the boardwalk tonight, they’ll be collecting donations and signing up volunteers – it’s good for the soul…this is for them…”
 * 28.08.03 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “My City of Ruins”**

“Thank you once again for coming out (crowd cheers) oh, we have people coming to our show with all different kinds of political beliefs and we like that and we welcome everybody, this is sort of a short public service announcement: a good time to be vigilant Americans out there, been a lot of questions raised about the forthrightness of the government and our entrance into the war in Iraq, playing with the truth has been, during wartime, has been a part of both Democratic and Republican administrations in the past and it’s always wrong when the lives of our sons and daughters are on the line every day…so I don’t see it as a liberal or a conservative question, really it’s an American question, safeguarding the democracy that we ask our sons and our daughters to die for is a sacred trust and demanding accountability from our leaders is our job as citizens so be vigilant (crowd cheers) this is “Land of hope and dreams”…”
 * 28.08.03 East Rutherford, NJ, intro to “Land of Hope and Dreams”**

//Compiled by Johanna Pirttijärvi//